Mind Fields: I Tear Apart Marvel Comics With My Grandkids
Posted: October 6, 2023 Filed under: Comic Hero, Commentary, Mind Fields, Parenting, Writing to be Read | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Children, Marvel Universe, Mind Fields, Social Commentary, Writing to be Read 17 Comments
When I’m with my grandkids watching movies from the Marvel Comics universe I have to remind myself not to view this material with an adult mind. It’s better to watch with the mind set of my 13 year old grandson and ten year old grand-daughter.
Last night we watched “Ant Man And The Wasp”. My grandkids loved it. I liked it. Well… I endured it. There’s so much filler in Marvel movies. Every “BOP! POW!” or “WHAM!”, every end-over-end toppling of a character whose booties excavate the pavement or crush an office building: all that stuff is so much dross. Such destruction! Miraculously, no one is annihilated by the falling buses or shattered facades.
It seems to me that great writers are those who go the extra mile. Lazy writers are those who go right up to the mile before the mile before the EXTRA MILE. That’s what’s frustrating about Marvel movies. The producers know that they can inject a liberal amount of fake fighting and harmless destruction into the script. How much? Fifteen minutes? Twenty? Maybe half an hour of combat-without-consequences? IF (and we are) raising children with this stuff it sets a dangerous idea, that is, “THERE ARE NO REAL CONSEQUENCES”. There are just provisional outcomes that can always be changed by using a time machine or some deus ex machina, some easy out. Kids absorb this data hungrily and without critical thinking. They love the bop!bam! stuff and don’t seem to be frustrated by the relative emptiness of the script.
“Ant Man And The Wasp” deals with some heayy concepts, like the world of Quantum Mechanics, the realm of the minute sub-quark particles. I enjoy the psychedelic visuals to depict these mysterious areas. “Someone” I thought (but did not speak aloud) has been smoking some DMT or ingesting psilocybin. I took a few moments to explain Quantum Mechanics to my grandkids. They’re super-bright little people who are far more powerful than I am. They’re still kids. So I have to tell myself to chill; watch the Marvel Universe with an uninformed mind. They understood my explanation of Quantum Mechanics“ as a continuum, from the mighty sizes of galaxies to the infinitesimal sizes of sub atomic particles. BUT..if you live in any of these places then it all looks normal-sized. To you and your friends”. Right? Right.
My grand-daughter just came into my office and asked “Whatcha doing?” I said that I was writing a review of the movie we saw last night. I explained my point of view and she seemed to grasp that a world in which no one REALLY dies is a bit fatuous. I explained that Marvel’s tactics remove the real terror from their productions. We all know that none of the heroes will die. That there’s some last minute rescue. Or the sequel will resuscitate the seemingly annihilated people.
Hasn’t the media world always been like this? The soft-peddle American media archives are full of plots with happy endings. The hero always triumphs; the frustrated couple always get their kiss. I think this is true, but now, in 2023, it’s just more so. There’s more technology, more ways to soften the blows of so called REALITY.
Reality has never been less real.
The sound track of “Ant Man And The Wasp” brings a relentless rhythmic figure, a continuous percussive BAH BUH BUMP BUMP that induces an excited state in the viewer. It was so pernicious that my sleep was disturbed until I got up at around three in the morning and quietly played some Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. THAT was the last thing I heard before returning to bed and snoring away the next four hours. It’s important to understand this level of mind hygiene. The last sounds you hear remain in your head until you hear something else. If you want to sleep, you need to ditch the rough stuff in favor of something soothing. At least it works that way for me.
I explained the thrust of this essay to my ten year old granddaughter: that none of the heroes REALLY die and that makes the movies way less scary. I’m pretty sure she grasped my point. She’s really smart. I don’t know what kind of people god is now manufacturing but they are somethin’ else.
I’m less worried about the future when I see how these kids cope. Quantum Mechanics? They don’t care; its just something people say that means invisibly tiny stuff, like stuff that makes bacteria look HUGE!
They get it. They know that bacteria are too small to see, so why not even smaller stuff?
Why not? In a world where nothing is impossible; everything that’s going to happen has already happened and continues to happen. The future is giving way to this stuff. And it’s happening again.
About the Author
Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
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Personally, I dislike these things. My daughter and her family follow it like it’s some sort of well, I don’t have a word.
I’d love to have you review video games. Another pet peeve of mine.
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Hi Art, a most entertaining post. I don’t watch movies and don’t particularly like Marvel. My younger son used to like Marvel, but he doesn’t watch it anymore. He says they’ve made too many. I enjoyed learning a bit about your grandchildren.
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Hi, Robbie. You mean I’m not the only one who doesn’t watch movies? When I say that in certain circles, you’d think I had two heads. It’s not for the reason everyone thinks either. Everyone always assumes I don’t watch movies because I’m blind. That’s not the case. We’ve audio description for that problem now days most of the time. The reason I don’t watch movies is because I’d rather read a book. I live in total nerd-Ville and I’m not one bit ashamed of it anymore.
My idea of a good time is to curl up with a good book, some good food, and a good glass of wine.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
See her published work and more here.
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Hi Patty, I have a long list of hobbies as you know so movies just never feature. Even as a girl I always read and rarely watched TV or a movie. You are not alone.
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Hi, Robbie. I have a long list of hobbies too.
Today, I’m trying my hand at a recipe I made up. It’s in the oven now, blog post to come.
Loves.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
See her published work and more here.
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Fabulous
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Thanks for the comments, my friends. To my great relief I completely missed video games. wouldn’t know how to go about it if I wanted to. I have NO interest. TV//film is a wide enough universe to patrol with my ever-vigilant muskrat brigade who sniff out lazy crappy production work.
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Hi, youâre welcome for the comments. I know how it feels to get none. When I read a post, I try to always at least like it and when applicable I comment.
I feel itâs important to validate the bloggerâs work.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
See her published work and more here.
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I’ve gotten used to lack of feedback. I know the value of my work. The world has gotten crowded, so many people, so many writers it’s very difficult to capture the attention of readers. As I go along, my audience grows. It’s funny how I began my internet marketing as soon as there WAS an internet. Lately I’ve seen a surge of readers, which is a nice feeling for me. Thank you all for being such loyal accomplices!
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I think it really depends on the audience. I see some bloggers that have so many comments on their posts, and then the topic gets changed in the comments, and conversations go all kinds of different directions, which I love, and then I see others that have hardly any. Mine falls in the hardly any category, but that is OK.
Patty Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works as an author and social media marketing assistant. Learn more at: http://www.pattysworlds.com
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As someone who has promoted your work for years, I am pleased to see this happening. Keep on writing! 🙂
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KL, you’ll never know how precious has been your support. You’ve been of such value just to keep me alive and creative. Sometimes it only takes one person. It doesn’t always require a crowd.
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Aw. 🙂 ❤
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Hi Kaye, I can understand why he would say that. Because you nudged me to write out of my comfort zone with the story I’ve in this anthology my writing has come up a level. Because of that nudge, I actually went back and rewrote part of the book I’m readying to publish and I’d have never done it had I not gotten that nudge.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
See her published work and more here.
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It does my hearrrt good to know something I’ve done has helped someone along on their writing journey. 🙂
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I too understand that feeling.
I was blown away after encouraging a client of mine to write finally convincing him he indeed still had things to say, when just over a year later, he’d written just over 101 essays and was turning them into a book.
He said he’d never have done it if I’d not nudged him alone.
I think nudge might have been kind, I bugged the heck out of him.
Either way keep up that good work.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
See her published work and more here.
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